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Patrick Blennerhassett

Where to start with the Qatar 2022 World Cup?
Four years out, and the controversies continue to pile on. The latest: a recently unveiled stadium the internet is poking fun at.
The 40,000-seat venue in Al Wakrah is drawing comparisons to female anatomy, producing countless jokes on Twitter and the usual sexist puns.
The Qatar organisers would be so lucky if this was the worst news coming out of the build up to the next Fifa World Cup.

Al Wakrah Stadium: a venue with sustainability at its heart pic.twitter.com/ofGa5G1z3x
— Road to 2022 (@roadto2022) December 5, 2018

Turns out the poorly shaped stadium is the least of Qatar’s worries, and with the legitimate problems only festering, one wonders, will this thing actually take place, or will Fifa pull the plug?
Let’s recap: first off, an investigation after a British man fell to his death at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha found that as many as 4,000 workers building the venues for the tournament could perish by 2022 (more than 1,200 have died already).
Fifa to press for shortened 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Compounding this are allegations of horrible working conditions and slavery. Qatar already has a dismal human rights record: rampant abuse and exploitation of low-paid migrants, who number in the tens of thousands and hail predominately from India and Nepal. In fact, foreign workers make up 88 per cent of Qatar’s 2.7 million people.
If it sounds like a feudal Middle Ages kingdom where a select few rule over the peasants in terror, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees with you.
Absolutely an ideal host to promote the world of sport and its ability to bring nations and people together, right?
Qatar’s controversial 2022 World Cup back in the spotlight as spat highlights challenges ahead

The country is a blatant mismatch to showcase society’s progressive nature. Sharia Law rules the country with an iron fist, and citizens have little in terms of cultural freedoms.
Homosexuality is illegal, women are barely treated as human when it comes to court testimony, and archaic laws like apostasy (which is punishable by death) and blasphemy (up to seven years in prison) are still enforced.
Marital rape is not defined as a crime, and extramarital sex is subject to corporal punishment. Oh, and drinking is illegal, but apparently alcohol consumption will be permitted within the venues.
Why was US$2m sent to child of Fifa member before 2022 World Cup awarded? Questions as Qatar corruption report published

And then there’s the Garcia Report, in which former US attorney Michael J. Garcia was tasked with investigating allegations of corruption in handing Qatar the bid.
Garcia was appointed in 2012 to investigate Fifa, and after a two-year investigation he submitted his report, which Fifa promptly refused to publish and instead release a summary clearing them of any wrongdoing.
Garcia resigned, obviously, and the full report leaked, detailing the obvious: rampant corruption when it came to the bidding process, not just by Qatar, but pretty much every bid for the 2018 tournament (which went to Russia) and the 2022 bid.
Marcello Lippi happy to sign on to lead China to 2022 World Cup after building team for future

This is just the start, and when it comes to the actual tournament, there’s another handful of serious issues organisers and Fifa have tried to whitewash. Qatar is so hot during the summer (it can regularly hit 50 degrees Celsius), the tournament dates had to be changed from it’s usual June-July staging to November 21 through December 18.
Not only does this condense the tournament by four days, which is not good for the players and could increase injuries due to less time to recover between games, it also clashes with the European football league schedule.
There are rumblings Qatar may be in talks with nations such as Saudi Arabia to host a few matches to lighten the load after Fifa president Gianni Infantino suggested the nation consider the idea. Sadly Saudi Arabia isn’t fairing much better when it comes to international news headlines. Swapping out one controversial kingdom for another is like doubling down on poor ideas.
Fifa rules out revote on 2018 and 2022 World Cups following report release

‘The only question is when, not if’: Qatar adamant it will host 2022 World Cup
There’s also the general logistical challenge of a tiny nation like Qatar hosting hundreds of thousands of fans, security in the Middle East is an issue, and the fact that it still gets up to 30 degrees Celsius in Qatar’s winter months. If this doesn’t sound like a failure, I don’t know what is.
Would Fifa ever strip Qatar of the tournament? It’s probably too late now, but there have been numerous calls from various governments and organisations to pull the plug and send the tournament somewhere less disastrous.
With four years to go, Qatar 2022 looks like a bust, and even some substantial on-field magic by the world’s best players probably can’t save this car wreck of a tournament.


To achieve its football goals, scandal-hit China can learn from Japan

Chinese superfan books into Lionel Messi’s hotel for glimpse of hero in Beijing

Sport and politics should be kept as far apart as possible

Meet Sam Li Sirong, China’s 19-year-old fashionista football star who features in Louis Vuitton’s Archlight Sneaker 2.0 campaign with Jaden Smith and models for Hublot when he’s not on the field

Fifa World Cup 2022

Fifa 2022 World Cup: Qatar is a bust, and we’re still four years away from the kick-off

A mock-up of the World Cup is seen at a shop in Souk Waqif in Doha, Qatar. The 2022 edition of the tournament has been marred by endless controversy. Photo: Reuters

Workers are pictured on scaffolding at the Khalifa International Stadium on November 18, 2018, in Doha. (Photo by - / AFP)

(FILES) This file photo taken on February 06, 2018 shows a general view of the construction site at the Al-Wakrah Stadium, a World Cup venue designed by celebrated Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, some 15 kilometres on the outskirts of the Qatari capital Doha. - A 23-year-old Nepalese labourer who died on August 14 working at the World Cup stadium in Qatar, fell to his death, one of the main contractors at the site said. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION

FILE - In this April 12, 2018 file photo, FIFA President Gianni Infantino participates in the annual conference of the South American Football Confederation, CONMEBOL, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Infantino has asked the emir of Qatar to consider co-hosting the next World Cup with several nations that are attempting to isolate the tiny desert country in a bitter diplomatic dispute. Qatar has just eight stadiums to host 64 games over an already-congested 28-day window in 2022. Expanding the field to 48 teams would mean 80 games, requiring more stadiums. Infantino says using venues in Saudi Arabia and around the Persian Gulf "would probably be a nice message." (AP Photo/Martin Ruggiero, File)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018 picture, men install foundation steel reinforcement bars on the construction site of the Ras Abu Aboud stadium in Doha, Qatar. Eight stadiums scattered in a 30-mile radius that will host 32 teams from across the planet are in various stages of development, most of them trying to walk the treacherous line of paying homage to the region's history while simultaneously avoiding becoming an expensive and unused relic once the party ends and everyone else goes home.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Paul Pogba of France celebrates after his team defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the country's second World Cup title at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15, 2018. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sport

Football

Opinion

Controversies and negative press continue to pile on the tiny Middle Eastern nation
Would Fifa consider stripping Qatar of the tournament, or are they too deep in to turn back?


Fifa

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Controversies and negative press continue to pile on the tiny Middle Eastern nation Would Fifa consider stripping Qatar of the tournament, or are they too deep in to turn back?

Controversies and negative press continue to pile on the tiny Middle Eastern nation

Would Fifa consider stripping Qatar of the tournament, or are they too deep in to turn back?